LESBIAN-GAY

OF GREATER CLEVELAND

This space has been donated to the Center by the Chronicle, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Chronicle staff or management.

by Leigh A. Robertson Executive Director

Thank you all for making my arrival in Cleveland easier through your hospitality, greetings, and welcome hugs! Cleveland is an exciting city to live and work. I look forward to a prosperous year for the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center and our brother and sister organizations.

PRYSM outreach. We need parents to become involved as adult advisors. Please contact Aubrey Werthim at the Center if your interested or know someone who may be willing to participate.

The Cleveland Board of Education and Windsor Hospital are working with us to incorporate awareness and sensitivity to lesbian and gay issues.

Tales of the Closet, our newly arrived lesbian-gay-bi youth comic books are available and free to people 22 years and under. They cost $1.00 for people over 22. Come by for yours!

It's a Stage! meets the fourth Saturday in March, the 23rd. We're looking for more participants, so come by and sing along!

The Center was approached by the

Community Relations Board of Cleveland

City Hall to meet with them and other lesbian and gay organizations to explore our civil rights protection. The February 5 meeting was attended by representatives from the Center, Stonewall and the ACLU.

Maryann Finegan Project. The gay violence reports are coming in weekly. The program is very successful, but that means more work-so we need buddies who can support these victims.

Women's Coffeehouse will be April 13 at the Franklin Circle Church. The cost is $5.00, more if you can, less if you can't, and it starts at 8:00 pm.

Men in Touch will meet March 19. Spring internships. Anyone interested in a student internship please contact us. Women's reception. The women of the Center board invite you to spend Sunday afternoon with me, the new Executive Director. This women-only event will be March 3 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at 1418 W 29th St. Please join me in an afternoon of sisterhood!

M. Butterfly Centertainment is currently forming theater parties for M. Butterfly at the Palace Theater and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune at the Cleveland Play House. To have you name added to the Centertainment mailing list, call the Center at 522-1999.

Enjoy going to the movies? If so, then join us for our Wednesday night, movie group. Call the hotline at 781-6736 and leave your name and number and we will give you a call on the weekend with infor-

mation about the film and where and when to meet.▼

started to get my hand to go up a little more The Good News when a volunteer was needed. I even

This space has been donated to Emmanuel MCC by the Chronicle, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Chronicle staff or management.

What does it take to get you involved? Ours is a community that procrastinates itself to death. We sit back and wait for someone else to do it. Why is that? The only way we can start showing the "straight" community we're here is to show ourselves who and what we are. What gets each of us involved?

I started getting involved by first singing in the church choir. I was then persuaded to start writing these articles that appear monthly in the Chronicle. But that was about it. It's not easy committing to a course or an event. So what can inspire you?

First, we find something we believe in. I even surprised myself when I started getting more and more active in Emmanuel. I never thought I would be able to do that. I would rather sit back with excuses and watch another work. Inactivity can be so relaxing, so peaceful, so boring! I finally

started getting on committees to help fundraisers for the church, increasing my involvement in the gay community instead of just keeping a passive interest.

Getting in on this latest venture has cost me time, sanity and a bottle of aspirin. And I'm actually enjoying it!

On Saturday, March 16, Emmanuel MCC will be presenting its annual auction to benefit the church. The starting time is tentatively set for 5:00 p.m. but with our growing list of business donations and services, we may have to begin earlier. Everyone is welcome to come. Bidding is open to everyone, and all will find things to buy. To all of you business owners, we are looking forward to the fun and joy at which your generous donation was fought and bought for.

All of the proceeds stay in the church, and are used to help the church in any way possible to better serve the gay and lesbian community. Last year's auction proceeds went to pay for our pastor at the time to go to an AIDS clinic to help her get more insight and education in order to counsel or consult with anyone who is living with, or

March, 1991

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

תברר תקוה

Chevrei Tikva

This space has been donated to Chevrei Tikva by the Chronicle, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Chronicle staff or management.

Once again it is holiday time in the Jewish calendar. This one is the wellknown festival of Passover. The history of this event is the "Passing Over" of the Jews from Egyptian slavery, to 40 years of wandering in the desert, then ending up in Israel, the Promised Land.

Passover is significant to the non-Jewish world since the Seder was the Last Supper. While Jesus was celebrating this holiday with his friends, the Romans came to arrest him.

When the Jews fled Egypt they had no time to pack all of their household belongings. Moses instructed them to take as little as possible and only essentials. Since household goods meant food, they threw together whatever they could carry. Therefore, no dough for self-rising bread or pastry. We now know Matzo!

All of the food eaten during this season (beginning at sundown on March 29 through sundown Saturday, April 6 this year) is symbolic of that time. Orthodox Jews will begin days in advance by changing all of the dishes, cooking utensils, dish towels, etc. to a set used only during this holiday each year. Special foods will be

helping care for, or grieving over someone with the AIDS virus.

So rest assured, all monies and proceeds go to the church and stay in the church, for disbursement in our community. We are expecting a huge turnout, and will expect to see you there as well. There will be snacks and munchies also. Don't miss out on one of the social events of the year.

Helping put all of this together takes a lot of people, hours, and loving sweat. It doesn't get done without participation from a dedicated committee and the many volunteers working with us. But what causes some people to commit and work while some prefer to watch? Speaking strictly for myself, it had to do with the respect I came to have for someone else, a fellow church member.

On January 18, Emmanuel Metropolitan Community Church lost a founding member. He had a progressively worsening disease, and was crippled almost all of his all-too-brief life. I hardly knew him, as church, his health was already slowly dewhen I started going regularly to the clining. It became increasingly difficult for him to get around. He needed two arm crutches to practically drag himself around

Page 7

made and purchased to be eaten during the eight days. The day before the eve of Passover, a search is made of Orthodox homes for non-Passover foods (chametz). Anything not used up by then is donated to charity or destroyed if perishable. (A good time to make food donations to HIT's PWA Food Bank thru Chevrei Tikva.)

The first two nights are celebrated with major feasts surrounded by a service. The order of service begins with the youngest asking "The Four Questions" which begin, "Why is this night different from all others?" He or she then asks why four specific things are different at the Seder as opposed to other nights during the year. The balance of the evening is spent in detailed answers to those questions, eating and drinking at least four glasses of wine or grape juice. This is a time of family gathering, with friends, neighbors and strangers into your home to partake. "No one should be alone or go hungry."

Chevrei Tikva celebrates this feast in our usual manner, eating and following the spiritual traditions of the holiday. Since most of our members will "Seder" with family members, CT will have its annual Model Seder at the Unitarian Society in Cleveland Heights. The date will be Sunday, March 24. All are invited, Jew and non-Jewish to this universal holiday. We sill also be conducting our semi-annual food drive, as mentioned previously, for the HIT/PWA Food Bank. Donations will be accepted at all CT events during the month of March.

For more information, please call 9325551. ▼

on. He had no car of his own to transport himself around in. He had no partner to lean on in life as his physical body slowly gave out.

But his spirit never did. He would come to church on days when I don't think I would have had the energy to get there. Sometimes he would ride a bus for an hour or longer just to get there. He would arrive with two crutches, and a backpack strapped around his neck with things he might need. I have sat in the pews and watched the ushers and some of his closer acquaintances literally carry him inside the church, because he was already exhausted just getting there.

I barely knew him, but he lived downstairs from my lifetime companion for a time in an apartment complex,, and some of our close friends remained in touch with after he moved, until his passing. I never felt anything but an utmost respect for this man. For his gumption and drive. As our friends remembered him in my presence, that respect grew. He could laugh at things when I would have been bitter or angry over. He managed to get to places alone when I would have stayed home. Continued on page 9

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